Profit excluding some items totaled 21 cents a share in the
three months ended March 31, New York-based Take-Two said today
in a statement. Analysts projected 9 cents, the average of
estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Grand Theft Auto V was the best-selling console video game
in North America, Latin America and Europe last year, shipping
more than 33 million copies, the company said. During the
quarter, gamers also snapped up other Take-Two titles including
Borderlands 2, NBA 2K14 and BioShock Infinite.

“Grand Theft Auto continues to perform exceedingly well,”
Chief Executive Officer Strauss Zelnick said in an interview.
“It’s our seventh quarter of beating guidance and we guided to
a very profitable year, which will be in the absence of a new
release of a major new GTA title.”

Take-Two fell 1.4 percent to $20.35 in extended trading
after being down as much as 6.1 percent following the
announcement. The stock lost 0.2 percent to $20.63 at the close
in New York and has gained 19 percent this year.

Sales for the quarter fell 23 percent to $233.2 million,
after some adjustments, surpassing the average estimate of
$201.6 million. In the quarter a year earlier, the company
benefited from strong sales of the BioShock Infinite video-game.

Release Slate

Take-Two reported a net loss of $30.8 million, or 40 cents
a share, for the quarter, compared with profit of $22.4 million,
or 24 cents, a year earlier, when the BioShock title fueled
gains.

Take-Two’s lineup of new releases is heavily weighted
toward the holiday shopping period. This quarter, the company
projects a loss of 25 cents to 35 cents a share, more than the
loss of 10 cents estimated by analysts. Its revenue projection
of $120 million to $135 million also was short of analysts’
estimates of $211.3 million.

For the year, the company forecasts revenue of as much as
$1.45 billion, compared with analysts’ estimates of $1.37
billion, and profit of 80 cents to $1.05 a share. Analysts are
estimating $1.05.